But hundreds of companies and prominent citizens have sent just such information to the federal government, some detailing their biggest security worries. The reported dangers range from chilling to seemingly trivial: al Qaeda terrorists; animal-rights extremists; deranged stalkers; depressed gamblers; gas-price malcontents and aggressive autograph-seekers.

The threat information was contained in letters sent in 2011 to the Federal Aviation Administration but not made public until now. The letter-writers were stirred to action by a since-shelved FAA plan to allow the public to have greater real-time access to the flight paths of private aircraft.

Among the letter writers were the Browns.

The team “sent a five-page submission, written by a former director of the U.S. Secret Service, that began with a history of security concerns related to the late Al Lerner, a businessman who bought the revived Cleveland franchise in 1998 and who, according to the letter, held 'Top Secret' security clearance during the George W. Bush administration,” according to the story.

Mr. Lerner died almost nine years before the letter was written.

The Journal notes his son, Randy Lerner, who owned the team until last year and still owns Britain's Aston Villa soccer club, also had been subjected to stalking and threats, according to the letter, which blamed fans who were "fanatics" or "disgruntled."

A quick summary hardly does justice to this Wall Street Journal story about Tim Kirby, an expatriate from the Cleveland suburbs who says he wants Russian citizenship and says Joseph Stalin was a better leader than he has been portrayed in history books.

“On radio shows on Moscow's state-controlled Radio Mayak and in frequent appearances on state television, Mr. Kirby is making a name for himself inside Russia as a kind of Kremlin-appointed Joe the Plumber who explains a broken America to Russian listeners,” The Journal says.

As the Kremlin rallied support for its ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian orphans imposed late last year, Mr. Kirby, 31, “appeared on prime-time talk shows to say that one quarter of American children take pills that affect their brains, and that they are endangered by religious sects whose members oppose medical care or dance around poisonous snakes,” according to the newspaper.

Mr. Kirby's career is flowering as the Kremlin “ramps up a campaign against U.S. influence in Russia, warning that Western-paid agents are trying to undermine the country's stability under the guise of civic action and human rights campaigns,” The Journal says.

He grew up “in a rundown suburb of Cleveland” — the story doesn't identify it — and he tells The Journal that his upbringing as a white minority in his neighborhood left him "uncomfortable" in polite society and hostile to authority. He joined the Peace Corps after college, was sent to the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan and ended up in Moscow in 2007.

“Franchising “can be a great thing as long as people are realistic. I'm always cautioning folks not to fall into the franchise industry Kool-Aid,” Mr. Libava says.

“Some people have the illusion — because of buzzwords like 'turnkey' and 'business in a box' — that they turn the key and the franchise has everything set up and the money comes in,” he adds. “It doesn't work like that. You've got to really work hard.”

The piece then lists 11 mistakes for prospective franchisees to avoid. Among them: Don't misunderstand the rules.

For instance, if you're entrepreneurial by temperament, a franchise probably is not for you.

The best candidate, Mr. Libava said, is someone “who has been in corporate America for a long time and is used to rules — they tend to do a lot better than people who are entrepreneurial.”

Businessweek.com runs a letter from Cleveland resident Peter Rebar in response to a story that argued Margaret Thatcher did not solve many of Britain's most serious problems.

“At most, (Thatcherism) only slowed down Britain's ongoing decline as it drifts further toward socialism and an overreliance on finance and government-sector jobs,” Mr. Rebar writes.

“Although Thatcher had some good ideas, she did not realize that her unconditional support of free trade in the 1980s would eventually lead to a global economy consisting of state-owned enterprises from low-cost countries pursuing mercantilist trade policies,” he adds. “The result is Britain's deindustrialization.”

It looks like there finally will be a movie adaptation of “Torso,” an acclaimed graphic novel about a series of killings in Cleveland in the 1930s.

The Hollywood Reporter says filmmaker David Lowery, whose “Ain't Them Bodies Saints” earned good reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, has come aboard to write and direct an adaption of “Torso.”

Hollywood “has tried for more than a decade to get its hooks” into “Torso,” the newspaper says of the graphic novel by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko. At one point, David Fincher hoped to adapt “Torso” as a follow-up to “Zodiac.”

“Torso” is based on a time in Elliot Ness' career (after his Al Capone days) when he moved to Cleveland and “got embroiled in the hunt of a serial killer who was leaving torsos in the river and taunting notes to police,” the newspaper notes.

The TicketCity algorithm incorporates attendance, median ticket price, ticket demand and social media to come up with an engagement score. The most engaged fan base is the San Francisco Giants — not hard, when you win the World Series — and the least engaged, no surprise, is the Miami Marlins.

The Indians are ranked 26th in MLB. Only the Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox are less compelling to their fans.

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